Harry Potter meets Jesus Sermon Podcast 4 - Albus Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat

Series: Harry Potter meets Jesus

June 02, 2019

Langdon Palmer

Do we really have free will, or is it just an illusion? Do you think you can control your future or do you believe whatever is going to happen is going to happen ? Is there such a thing as fate or destiny ? If there is a God and he is in complete control, how can our choices matter ? Today we face these fundamental questions about life and our introduction is the classic scene in Harry Potter where the Sorting Hat decides to which house he will be assigned. We then jump into the scriptures and discover that in the midst of all the uncertainty of life, the primal thing we need to know is this: Is God Kind, Is God good ? Can God be trusted ?

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Episode Notes

“God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can’t. If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having” – C.S. Lewis

Life can only be understood backwards
but it must be lived forwards…” – Søren Kierkegaard

And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat
from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
– Genesis 2:16-17

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. – Deuteronomy 30:19-20

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:15

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” – Ephesians 1:11

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. – Philippians 2:12-13

“It’s not my business to try and make God think like me… but to try, in prayer and penitence, to think like God.” – AW Tozer

MEMORY VERSE: Philippians 2:12-13

CHALLENGE QUESTION: What steps can you take to try to determine if your choice is within God’s preferred will ?